Just a Different Sort of Perfect
by mintbanana
Summary: She was perfect, just not in the conventional sense of the word. Brick/Blossom oneshot.


_**Disclaimer: **__Not mine!  
__This was the result of me smacking my muse around the head with a big rubber brick until it agreed to come back to work. Lemme know what you think._

**Just a Different Sort of Perfect**

He looked down at her ribbon hanging from his fingers and noticed the two strands of coppery hair tangled around it. Then he looked down further at the crumpled body lying at his feet.

She was still alive, but that wasn't too much of a surprise. Even if he was stronger, he doubted he could kill her using his fists alone. Looking at her now, there was something intriguing about the way she was; lying half curled on her side with her hair loose and sticking to the blood that flowed freely from the long gash above her eye. Her breathing was shallow, and punctuated by brief gasps of pain. From the sound of it, he'd cracked or even broken at least one of her ribs. She twitched her arms, trying to force herself into an upright position. He snorted. Still so determined. Well, he might as well give her a hand up…

She gave a half gasped scream as he hooked a hand under her arm and jerked her upright, confirming his suspicions that her ribs were damaged. One of her ankles also appeared to be twisted; she seemed to be trying to avoid putting any weight on it. Her breathing was more laboured now, but it didn't stop her from fixing him with a slightly unfocused pink eye.

"I _hate_ you," she spat, her voice trembling slightly, but still dripping with as much venom as she could muster. He laughed at that, before swinging her round and throwing her away across the empty car park. She hit the ground like a rag doll, bouncing and rolling for a few metres before coming to rest up against the chain-link fencing that surrounded the area. He heard her make a strangled coughing sound, and then she lay still.

He wandered over to where she lay, taking his own sweet time. He could still pick up on the sound of her breathing, although she wasn't exactly sounding healthy. Upon reaching her, he used his foot to roll her over, finding her to be unconscious.

"Given up on me already? Really, Bloss, this isn't like you. Normally you last so much longer." He crouched down next to her, casting his shadow over her battered and bloodstained form. Her hair was still sticking to the blood over the right hand side of her face, and he casually brushed it away.

"Maybe I went too hard on you, huh?" He kept his tone light, conversational even, although it really made no difference; she couldn't hear him afterall. He started carefully wiping away the blood on her face with his sleeve. The cut above her eye was finally clotting, so he was able to get rid of the worst of it, revealing her skin to be turning a sickly pale colour. The Chemical X in her system was starting the healing process, but because she'd used so much of it fighting him, it was having to draw on her body's depleted energy in order to have any effect whatsoever. He sighed and put a hand on her forehead, noting that she seemed slightly feverish. That was a good sign; it meant that the Chemical X wasn't using her body heat to speed up the job, even if the healing was raising her temperature. It had happened to Butch once after a particularly nasty round with Buttercup and it had damn near killed him. Blossom was in a far worse condition; there was no way she'd survive it.

"I guess I really _did_ do a number on you. Geez, Bloss, what was wrong with you today?" Normally, Blossom wouldn't have allowed herself to get into this condition, and she'd have landed a heck of a lot more hits on him too. As it was, he only had a few good bruises and a scorched shirt to show for his troubles, where as she…

Well, it looked like he was going to be hanging about longer than usual this time.

He wasn't entirely sure what his reason was for doing this. It had started around six months ago. Blossom had been suffering from the flu, but instead of leaving the job to her sisters, she had flown out to deal with him herself. Predictably, this hadn't ended well, and Brick had been left dangling a passed out and extremely feverish Powerpuff ten feet off the ground. Unsure of exactly how one should handle such a situation, Brick had taken her to the park and used the water from the fountain there to help cool her off until her sisters showed up. He had rationalized that it was no use being a supervillain if you didn't have an archrival to beat on occasionally, which made sense, in a roundabout sort of way.

However, this rationale seemed rather flimsy when he'd beaten her into submission the week after, and had stayed with her until she woke up. It seemed even flimsier when he did it again, and again, and again…

And now here he was sitting fidgeting with her ribbon and checking her pulse and breathing every now and then. The latter was becoming much more even now, so it seemed that the Chemical X was doing its job. Still, he was no further forward in figuring out why he was even bothering.

"Dammit Blossom. If you didn't let yourself get into this kind of mess then we wouldn't be having this problem." He fixed her prone form with a hard look, but was then surprised when she let out a small squeak; she was waking up, time to get gone. Getting to his feet, he turned to leave, but was stopped when she reached out a shaking hand and brushed his ankle with her fingertips.

"Don't…" she croaked feebly, her voice cracking almost painfully. "Don't leave..." He stood there for a second, unsure of what to do, but ultimately gave in and flopped back down onto the asphalt. Blossom managed a small smile, but then her face twisted and she shuddered bodily. Brick automatically reached out and checked her temperature and pulse, both of which were sky-rocketing. It looked as though the Chemical X was really kicking in now; it must have replenished itself a bit while she was unconscious. But it had a lot of work to do and Blossom wasn't in the best of conditions to handle it all right now. It was shaping up to be one of the worst catch 22s ever.

"Easy Blossom, easy," he muttered thoughtlessly as she grimaced and cried out, writhing a little as the healing process set to work on her ribs. He continued murmuring what basically amounted to nonsense as he tried to hold her still, hoping that it would prevent her injuring herself further.

"Come on Bloss, hold it together," he growled through clenched teeth as she started trembling furiously. Suddenly he felt movement on his hand, and looked down to see her slipping her own around it and place it in a death grip that would have broken a normal person's bones.

_Dammit Brick, why are you helping her? If either of your brothers show up…_ He pushed the thoughts to the back of his mind as Blossom bucked violently off the ground, her teeth grinding together. Her hold on his hand hadn't lessened any, but he found that he was gripping her back just as tightly, his other hand firmly on her shoulder.

And then finally, it stopped. Blossom flopped limply back onto the asphalt, her eyes unfocused and red-rimmed and her hair fanning out in limp straggles. Brick felt her hand go limp in his and let it go, watching it slither onto the ground. The girl gave an exhausted moan and took several deep breaths, trying to collect herself.

"Uh… you okay?" Brick said after a pause. Blossom turned her head to look at him and nodded weakly.

"Help me up?" she whispered, her voice hoarse. He complied without thinking, easing her into a sitting position and keeping his hand at her back to support her. Unconsciously, he smoothed her hair back from her face and pressed his hand to her forehead again.

"Your temperature's going down." He checked her pulse. "Heart rate too. Looks like you made a full recovery, more or less." She raised a hand to her throat.

"I need some water. There's… there's some in my bag. Could you…?" He was already scanning the car park, spying the cranberry coloured messenger bag over by the far exit. Still unsure of why he was doing this (for her of all people), he flew over and retrieved it, locating the sports bottle in the front pouch on his way back over. Blossom took it from him and popped the cap before sipping from it gingerly. She winced as she swallowed, but kept on taking small mouthfuls until the colour started returning to her pale cheeks.

"Thank you," she said politely, if a little awkwardly. He scratched the back of his neck and grunted in response.

"I should… ah!" She attempted to stand, but her legs were too shaky to support her weight, and Brick was just quick enough to catch her before she fell.

"Geez, be careful will you? Your body just went through hell and back."

"And whose fault is that?" she shot back indignantly, attempting to draw herself up haughtily. This, naturally, failed and she found herself leaning on him for support once again.

"You know, I'd like an answer to that question too. You weren't fighting back properly. Why?"

"What are you talking abou-"

"Don't play dumb Red; we both know you're not. Mind if we stop playing games and you give me an explanation?" Her pink eyes narrowed briefly, and then she sagged slightly, defeated.

"I was… testing something," she said lamely, making him frown at her in confusion.

"Testing _what_ exactly?" She suddenly flushed and looked away, although maintained her grip on his arm.

"You… you stay with me, don't you? After every fight I lose, you stay behind, like you did today, right?" Now it was Brick's turn to flush slightly, feeling the bridge of his nose burning.

"So? It's not like it _means_ anything, I just… well… What does that have to do with you getting yourself beat half to death anyway?" _Oh yes Brick, she won't notice such a blatant change in the subject, nosiree._

"I just wanted to know _why, _so I thought if I was hurt badly enough then you might… you know, stay long enough for me to ask. I never meant for this to happen though. I guess I misjudged my limits…"

"So that was it, huh? You always have to _know_ everything, don't you? How do you even know that I've been staying, huh?"

"That time when I had the fever… I came to at the fountain, but I was too exhausted to say anything. I thought it was just a one-off but then I started realising that after every fight I was never just left lying around. I was always near my things and any time I had injuries, all the blood was cleaned away. I knew my sisters weren't doing it so I figured…" It was at this point that Brick realised that he'd been busted. Absolutely 100% totally and utterly busted.

Damn.

"Rumbled me, huh? Well, I shoulda known better than to tangle with you on that front. If you must know, I only do it to make sure you're up for another round the next time we cross paths, got it?" He was bluffing, mostly, but it seemed reasonable enough. Surely she'd fall for that, right?

"Well if that's the case then why do you hit me so hard you sadistic idiot?"

"Hey, I'm no idiot, I just am what I am, sadistic or not. You're not meant to like it."

"Well it's just as well that I don't then, isn't it?"

"Just peachy,"

"Glad we agree!"

They glared at each other for a second, until they both realised that neither one had ever thought to relinquish their grips on each other, even through the arguing.

"Brick, I can stand on my own now, you can let go." But Brick was suddenly extremely reluctant to let go of her.

"I dunno Bloss, you still look kinda wobbly around the edges,"

"Really, I'm _fine_, now if you could please just _let go_."

"Hey, Bloss what are you doing? Seriously, don't-" But the words didn't get out fast enough, and Blossom pulled away from him sharply. However, he still had one hand on her waist and one on her arm, and as she tried to twist herself out of his grip, one her legs gave way and got tangled with his, landing them both on the ground.

"Ah, shit!" Brick yelled, rubbing his forehead where he'd smacked it off the tarmac.

"Now look what you- Oh." He felt the burning sensation return to the bridge of his nose as the reality of their current position dawned on him. Blossom stared up at him with wide eyes as Brick became acutely aware of her small body beneath his own.

"Brick…" she said slowly, her hands gently pushing against his shoulders. And then, in that moment, something happened.

"Shh, don't talk, okay?"

It was like looking at a different person. For years, all he had seen was the same annoying little girl he'd fought back when they were five years old, albeit with some additions in height and vocabulary (though the latter was not quite as… colourful as that of a certain black-haired sibling of hers). Now, as she lay there under him with her hair a mess and her eyes slightly bloodshot and a little bit of dried blood under her chin and with absolutely killer curves, he seemed to be looking at someone altogether more… everything. Not perfect, but something else altogether. He swallowed almost painfully as he looked at her.

"Brick?" she murmured, but he shushed her again, even though her eyes were still confused and perhaps even a little frightened. She licked her lips nervously, and Brick was suddenly captivated by that small, unconscious and totally innocent action.

And so, without thinking, or barely even registering what he was doing, Brick kissed her.

The response was almost instantaneous. As he leaned into her, he felt her hands, which had still been pushing against his shoulders, snake up over them and come to rest at the nape of his neck, the fingers twining together. She leaned up into the kiss a little, applying more pressure to it and opening her mouth slightly, an invitation which he immediately accepted. They went on like this for several minutes until they suddenly realised that they were mostly human, and did in fact, need to breathe.

"That was… that was… what _was_ that?"

"Good question. I'll get back to you once I figure that out myself." He propped himself up on his elbows and took another look at her, now flushed and (he noted with some satisfaction) quite happy looking, if a little confused. She wasn't the only one either. Although he knew he wasn't exactly upset with what he'd just done, he didn't quite know why he'd done it or what the hell he was supposed to do now. He then reasoned that getting up would be a good start, and so pulled himself, rather grudgingly if he was being honest, up off her and helped her to her feet after him. They dusted themselves off awkwardly, remaining silent for a few moments.

"So… that never happened, right?" Blossom mumbled eventually. Brick blinked.

"What?"

"We don't want anyone to know, right? I mean, it's just wrong, being what we are…" He stared at her incredulously for a second.

"You didn't like it?"

"What? Oh, no, I _did_, it's just…"

"It's just _what_?"

"Well we can't _do_ things like that! I mean, I'm a Powerpuff Girl and you're…"

"A teenager. And so are you. To hell with the superpowers. I mean, you have hormones, don't you?" Now she was the one blinking.

"Wha-"

"Oh come on! You just admitted you liked it; would you really object if I did it again?" He didn't give her time to react before he _did_ kiss her again, just to prove his point.

"See?"

"But it's not a good idea…" He growled a curse to himself, and then had a sudden thought.

"How many times am I going to have to do this in order to get through to you?" He flashed her a smirk, and her eyes gleamed wickedly as she caught onto his game.

"Well, considering you _did_ beat me half to death earlier, I'd say I need a lot of convincing, wouldn't you?" He rolled his eyes theatrically.

"Guess I have a lot of work to do then. Better get started."

He'd been wrong when he'd thought she wasn't perfect. Standing there now, kissing him like she was, hair a mess and just generally a little tattered round the edges, she was perfect. Just not in the conventional sense of the word.

_-end-_


End file.
